


Hit//Run

by Mertiya



Category: Magic: The Gathering
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, But he makes a decent wingman, Chandra is her usual self, F/M, Gideon has a flower shop, Gideon is also an idiot, Jace is a complete disaster, Meet-Cute, What a dork amirite
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-11
Updated: 2018-05-11
Packaged: 2019-05-05 07:02:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,685
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14612241
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mertiya/pseuds/Mertiya
Summary: Your usual story:  Boy meets girl, boy runs into stop sign trying not to gawk, girl drives boy to the hospital.  You know, standard stuff.





	Hit//Run

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Zomburai](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zomburai/gifts).



> Happy birthday, Zomb!

              The sun’s peeking brightly above the city skyline. Gideon hums to himself in time with the beat of his footfalls as he jogs along his usual exercise route. It’s going to be a beautiful day. He’s doing flower arrangements in his head; he’s pretty sure he’s going to have a couple of customers coming in today in a rush to get anniversary bouquets. Jace Beleren, for example, whose boyfriend absolutely does not care, who always forgets until the last minute, and then freaks out because despite the fact his boyfriend does not care, he thinks he’s a terrible boyfriend if he doesn’t do _something_. And ‘something’ is always flowers, because the Selesnya is just a block away from Jace and Ral’s shared flat.

            Gideon thinks maybe he’ll suggest a small flowering plant this year, instead of a bouquet. At least that way Ral can do experiments on it instead of leaving it on the counter to wither because they both forgot about it.

            He takes a right onto Roseburn Avenue, and that’s when he sees her. She’s wearing a jogging outfit, but she’s moving way too fast to be reasonably described as “jogging.” Her fiery hair springs out from her head like a bright corona, and she’s running with her arms tucked into her sides as if there’s a tiger after her. She’s frowning, sweaty, and her face is bright red from exertion. She’s gorgeous, and it’s so unexpected, Gideon has to take a moment to force his eyes shut to keep from staring.

            _Crash!_ Something smacks into Gideon’s face so hard that stars burst in front of his vision, and then he’s on the ground swearing and cradling his nose.

            “Um, _woah_ , dude, are you okay?” says a hesitant voice at his shoulder, and he looks up to see a fuzzy blur topped with red hair. He blinks a few times, and it resolves into the jogging woman. Smooth, Gideon. _Extremely_ smooth.

            “I’ll be fine,” he manages.

            “Shit, you’re bleeding. Do you need me to drive you to a doctor or something?”

            Feeling a little nauseated, head aching fiercely, Gideon staggers to his feet, leaning against the—oh, apparently it was a stop sign he ran into. That’s ironic. “No—no, that’s fine.”

            “You sure? That was a hell of a collision.”

            He nods, which is mistake. “Thank you, but I need to—” get to work, while bleeding, to bleed all over his customers? He sighs. “I—okay, maybe I should take you up on that.”

            “Yeah, you probably should. You good to walk?”

            “I hope so. I’m probably a little big for you to carry, anyway.”

            “Hey, I do aikido, asshole.”

            Good job, Gideon. “Sorry, I just meant—I’m not exactly a small guy, and I didn’t want to be an inconvenience—”

            “You’re digging yourself a bigger hole.” But she sticks out her tongue with a grin. “It’s cool. I know I’m tiny, and me being able to throw you probably wouldn’t help me carry you to my car.”

            He manages to stagger to his feet, and, fortunately, her car turns out to be pretty close. He sinks into the passenger seat with a groan. “Thanks again,” he mutters in embarrassment.

            “You’re bleeding pretty bad, man, you might need stitches,” she responds cheerfully. There’s a sudden jerk as she reverses out of the parking spot, and Gideon’s stomach flips uncertainly. The car makes a strange grinding noise.

            “Is—your car okay?” he asks cautiously, shutting his eyes in the hopes that it will do something about the incipient headache (it doesn’t).

            “Oh, probably,” she says, cheerfully. “Don’t worry, this baby makes a lot of strange noises. I rescued her from a junkyard.”

            “You what.”

            “I work in my dad’s auto repair shop, up the hill. This girl’s my favorite project for my free time.” The car screeches to a halt—with his eyes shut, Gideon can only assume they’ve come to a stop sign or a red light. It vibrates slightly, and he’s suddenly concerned for its structural integrity.

            “What’s your name?” he asks cautiously, trying to distract himself from his imminent demise.

            “Chandra. You?” The car screeches into motion again. Gideon doesn’t usually suffer much from car-sickness, but something about the pain in his head and having his eyes shut and the slewing motion is doing some unpleasant things to his insides. He leans his head against the cool glass of the window and focuses on counting backwards from a hundred. “Uh. Dude, you didn’t die, did you?”

            “What? Oh, no, sorry. I’m Gideon.”

            Screech, thump, shudder. They come to a rattling halt, sending pain spearing through Gideon’s head. “Whoops,” Chandra says, sounding abashed. “Sorry. Did not judge that well. Okay, well, here we are.”

            Gideon cracks his eyes open and feels for the car door. He manages to get out, and then has to stop because the ground shifts nauseatingly underneath him. “Damn.”

            “I’ll just help you into the clinic, shall I?” There’s an arm underneath his waist, and admittedly it does help direct him. “Are you going to be okay if I leave you there? I should probably get to work if I can.”

            “Absolutely,” Gideon tells her with conviction. “You’ve already done far more than enough.”

            “Okay, but I’m only going if you promise not to die on me.”

            He manages to crack a smile as they make it to the entrance. “I promise.”

~

            He’s late to opening his shop, but only by a few hours. The stitches are uncomfortable, and he’s going to look terrible until they come out, but at least it turns out he doesn’t have a concussion. He pops four ibuprofen on the instructions of the doctor and shows up to find Jace sitting miserably on the front step.

            “Jace,” Gideon sighs. “You know Ral does not actually give a shit.”

            Jace sighs, too. “I know,” he mutters. “It’s just—I wish I could—holy _shit_ , what happened to your face?”

            “Does it look that bad?” Gideon asks as he unlocks. Thankfully he cleaned up pretty thoroughly last night, so he’s basically ready to open now.

            “It looks like you took a baseball bat to the face.”

            “It was a lamp-post, actually. Or maybe a stop sign. It’s a little confused in my head.”

            “Were you in a car accident? Are you okay?”

            Gideon pulls a face. “I, uh, I was out running and I was trying not to stare at a woman, and I, uh, I—”

            Laughter, a little bit wild. “Sorry,” Jace swallows. “Sorry, I— _wow_. That is impressive.”

            “Not one of my finer moments. You know, I’ve been thinking, maybe you could get Ral a plant or a tree this year?”

            “Yeah, probably a better idea than a bouquet anyway. So, this woman…?”

            “Her name’s Chandra. She drove me to the hospital. She’s, uh, well—small and—”

            “—has red hair. Uh huh.”

            “So I’m predictable,” Gideon says with frustration.

            Jace cracks a smile. “Actually, I think I know who you’re talking about,” he replies. “Was she out jogging near the park?”

            “Yeah.” Gideon ducks under the counter, starting to look through options for Jace to give to Ral.

            “I think she and Ral had a couple of classes together last year,” Jace says meditatively. “We hung out once or twice. We’d been thinking about hanging out more, actually, but it’s been a busy few months. Still, if you guys are—”

            “Whoa,” Gideon says, standing up again and putting his hands down on the counter. “No, Jace. Do not. No.”

            “Aw, c’mon.” Jace’s mouth quirks up at the corner. “It would be a way to thank you for Ral.”

            “Literally all I did was encourage you to ask him out.”

            “ _And_ texted me pictures of sad puppies until I _had_ to.”

            Gideon fixes him with a frown, setting a cactus onto the counter. “You two just needed a little push. Here, how’s this? Just tell him not to overwater it.”

            “I wouldn’t worry about that,” Jace sighs. “Sure. Thanks, Gids. You’re a lifesaver.” He pays for the plant and shakes Gideon’s hand, then gives him a quirked-up half smile on the way out. “Have a good day!” he calls.

            Fortunately, it’s a quiet day. Gideon’s head is still hurting a little, so not having to interact with a lot of customers is a nice bonus. He sells a few bouquets, takes a few orders to fill for weddings in the coming weeks, and looks through some resumes of prospective employees because the little shop is getting too busy for just him and Emmara.

            He’s closing up shop when his phone buzzes with a text.

 

            _heya beefslab its Chandra_

Gideon feels his cheeks heating up. ‘Beefslab?’ “Hi,” he texts back, cautiously.

 

            _got ur number from ral_

            He stares at this for a minute, then types back, “Cool,” and, navigating over to his menu, sends an angry, _Dammit Jace_.

            Ting! He has “:)” from Jace, followed by, “Ral loved the cactus btw thanks.”

 

            _so I was wondering_

            Gideon feels his heartbeat speeding up a little again. He’s trying to decide whether to prompt her when he gets another text.

 

            _u wanna get coffee or smth? ur pretty cute_

            Well. That was easy. He blinks at the text, puts his hand to his mouth. Smiles. “Sure,” he types back. “I’d love to.” Pause. “You’re pretty cute yourself.”

 

            _awesome tomorrow morning? I bet ur not gonna be jogging again for a few days_

            “You’re not wrong. How about the Starbucks on Fifth & Grace?”

 

            _sounds good! 0700h?_

            “I’ll see you then.” Grinning now, Gideon scrolls back up and reads through the conversation again. Then he sighs and sends Jace, “Fine. You’re forgiven. And thank you.”

           

            Ting! _You got a date?_

 

            “Yes, I got a date. Good job. You are now a matchmaker.”

 

            _Way to go! I’m happy for you :D_

It’s a good day, Gideon can’t deny that. Maybe the rocky start was worth it. “Thanks, Jace,” he texts back. “Now go enjoy your date with Ral.” There’s no answer, which probably means they’ve already started said date. Gideon rests his head in his hand and smiles to himself.


End file.
